Mark Wirtz

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Mark Philipp Wirtz (born September 3, 1943 in Strasbourg , Alsace , † August 7, 2020 ) was a music producer , composer , arranger , musician , entertainer , stand-up comedian , author and painter based in the United States . As a producer, composer and arranger, Wirtz has worked with numerous artists, including Kippington Lodge , Marlene Dietrich , Wanda Jackson , Kim Fowley , Caroline Munro , Nicky Hopkins , Thomas Fritsch , Samantha Jones , Kris Ife , Grapefruit and Richard Barnes . As a musician, Mark Wirtz released both under his own name and under various pseudonyms , such as Mark Rogers , The Sweetshop (with his then wife Ross Hannaman ), Philwit & Pegasus (with Maria Feltham), The Mood Mosaic and others. As an author, Wirtz wrote columns for magazines and published several novels. His parents, Marga and Heinrich Wirtz, lived in Frechen near Cologne, where he also spent his childhood.

Live and act

In the early 1960s, Mark Wirtz studied art and acting in London . His band "The Beatcrackers" got a record deal in 1963 and made recordings as "Mark Rogers and the Marksmen".

In 1965 Wirtz started working as a producer. His early publications include a. the album Latin a Go-Go (Mark Wirtz Chorus and Orchestra, 1965) and the singles A Touch of Velvet - A Sting of Brass (The Mood Mosaic featuring The Ladybirds, 1966, later the signature tune by Dave Lee Travis - Radio Caroline, des Beat Clubs and the Music Store ), My White Bicycle ( Tomorrow , 1967) and Excerpt from "A Teenage Opera" (also known as Grocer Jack , Keith West and the Mark Wirtz Orchestra, 1967). The latter was part of a planned rock opera that was never completed (a compilation of various songs appeared as Teenage Opera in 1998, but only four of which were originally intended for the work: Grocer Jack , Sam , Weatherman and Theme ).

In 1970 Wirtz left Europe to work as a music producer in Hollywood . Artists he worked with in the 1970s include Helen Reddy , Leon Russell , Vicky Leandros , Kim Carnes, and Dean Martin , among many others .

In 1979 Wirtz withdrew from the music business to take care of raising his daughter. In addition to a wide variety of jobs, he took acting classes during this time and began performing as a stand-up comedian.

In 1996 Wirtz moved to Savannah , Georgia . He wrote columns for magazines, exhibited his paintings and published his first novel Sisyphus Rocks in 2002 under the pseudonym Michael Sinclair . The novel Love is Eggshaped followed in 2003 under his own name , for which a soundtrack was released in 2005 (Mark Wirtz Ear Theater).

As a producer, Wirtz produced the first CD for the band Les Philippes, Philantropic Philanthropy , in 2003 at the request of his daughter, who now lived in Spain . After returning to the music business, Wirtz produced further recordings, including his own such as Lost Pets 2 (2011).

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personal data
SURNAME Wirtz, Mark
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wirtz, Mark P.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French-American record producer, composer, arranger, musician, entertainer, stand-up comedian, author, and painter
DATE OF BIRTH September 3, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Strasbourg , Alsace
DATE OF DEATH August 7, 2020